A Community of Artists and Audience

Opera connects performers and audiences in a shared emotional
experience; both are equally important. On this site, you can read about
the ways in which the Peabody Opera Department brings singers together
into a community of
artists, where the ability to communicate with an audience is a simple
extension of the act of sharing with one another. You can also read about
the many performances offered
throughout the year, ranging from standard works in a large hall to
performances in more intimate settings such as art galleries, cabarets,
and schools. We aim to
extend the range of opera to include
earlier music, musical theater, and new works being presented for the
first time. We also aim to cultivate new audiences and extend the range of
interest of our established ones. Above all, we ask audiences and
performers alike to expect nothing less than a medium which communicates
directly with its listeners, in ways that engage the mind and move the
heart.

Introduction to the Opera Department

The Peabody Opera Department (Roger
Brunyate, artistic director) serves the educational needs of
students in the conservatory,
while offering a variety of operatic performances to audiences in the
Baltimore region. Whether onstage or in the studio, we believe our work
reflects what we consider our most valuable quality: that sense of
community which creates a close collaboration between students and
teachers in the classroom, and brings a tight-knit spirit of ensemble to
the stage.

Our public offerings each year range from the two major productions
of the Peabody Opera
Theatre to the numerous outreach performances of the Opera Outreach program, which
brings opera to schools all across Maryland. In addition, The Peabody Chamber Opera
presents performances of baroque opera, contemporary opera, and musical
theater in a variety of venues such as the Walters Art Gallery and
Baltimore’s Theatre Project, besides those in our own auditiorium, for a
total of around 40 performances annually.

The mission of the Peabody Opera Department is to develop singers with the interpretive skills, dramatic understanding, range of experience, and above all professionalism required for continuing success in the opera field.

We aim to achieve this mission by providing a basic exposure to opera and at least small-scale experience to all voice majors in the school, adding to this the professional training for advanced students that will enable them to find continuing employment when they graduate. Although Peabody has had its share of competition winners (including the Metropolitan Opera and the Moscow Tchaikowsky Competitions), our prime emphasis is less on the individual star than on working professionals: singers whose preparation and collegiality will win them return engagements after the first are over.

Such singers will have acquired from their voice teachers a solid and
flexible technique, musical expressiveness, and vocal stamina. They will
be consummate musicians able to read with ease and learn music accurately
and quickly. They will have command of at least the principal languages in
which operas are sung. They will be adaptable, having performed in the
widest possible range of repertoire: not only standard operas, but early
music, contemporary opera, and even such musical theater as suits their
voices. They will have learned to perform not only on the big stage, but
also in conditions where the audience is almost close enough to touch.
They will have come to regard opera as a living medium, not only through
singing contemporary music but in many cases also collaborating on the
creation of new works. Above all, they will have learned to handle
themselves responsibly as professionals, in many cases gaining
professional experience while still in school.

Structural site design and home page by James Rogers
Design and content of other pages by Roger Brunyate
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This site is maintained by the Peabody Conservatory Opera
Department, independently of the Peabody Institute webmaster.
The information which it contains is thus not necessarily
the official policy of the Institute.